Start-up Arcus raises $120 million

The chemist founders of Flexus Biosciences—which Bristol-Myers Squibb acquired last year for up to $1.25 billion—have started a new company called Arcus Biosciences. Coming out of so-called stealth mode, Arcus disclosed that it has raised $120 million in venture capital funding. The company’s first three compounds are small molecules intended to disrupt enzymatic conversion of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), released by dying cells, into adenosine. Whereas ATP is a signal to the immune system to respond to cancer, adenosine tells the immune system to stand down. CEO Terry Rosen expects two of the compounds to reach clinical trials in 2017.